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Hospital News
A newsletter for Hospital Pharmacy
THIS
ISSUE
MEDECATOR UPDATES – P2
CHRISTMAS DELIVERY
SCHEDULE – P4
PRODUCT ACCESS – P5
WINTER 2014
CENTRE FOR PHARMACY
INNOVATION – P6
MEDECATOR CELEBRATES
IT’S 10 YEAR BIRTHDAY
See page 2
Welcome to the Winter
Edition of Hospital News
This has been a challenging year for Hospital Pharmacy and a busy year for AAH
Hospital Services. Pace of change remains a theme for the NHS and Hospital Pharmacy;
looking ahead to 2015 and beyond our ability as an organisation to adapt to change
and align around your requirements will continue to be really important - we aim to do
that by continuing to listen carefully and take time to understand your challenges and
requirements really clearly. During 2015 Hospital News will be developed to bring you
up to date with new, exciting and developing ideas from within AAH and Celesio. This
issue is our first step, we hope you enjoy it.
We work closely with all our customers to ensure that
the very best wholesale service is delivered. You will
see from the numerous distribution announcements
this year we are always striving to make ordering as
easy for our customers as possible and our number of
distribution wins has reflected that. Please see page
5 for the latest list of manufacturers that we have
distribution agreements with.
As you may know AAH is part of the Celesio group
of companies that includes LloydsPharmacy and
Evolution Homecare. This gives us an opportunity
to work closely with hospitals in a number of areas
to deliver new ideas for excellent patient care and
operational efficiencies. One such thing is our
involvement in The Centre for Pharmacy Excellence
which you can read about on Page 6.
I would like to wish all our customers a happy and
prosperous new year, we look forward to working
with you in 2015.
Andrew Morris
Head of Sales – AAH Hospital Service
“
I hope you enjoy
this issue of Hospital
News. We always
value feedback in
all aspects of our
business, if you
have any thoughts,
comments or
suggestions for
our next issue
please email us at
[email protected]
“
F
irstly I would like to again congratulate the
winners of the APTUK Pharmacy Technician
Awards…it’s great to see professionals
recognised for their hard work, progressing and
improving pharmacy services to patients. We are
really proud to sponsor the 2015 awards and I would
personally encourage all technicians to think about
entering themselves or nominating a colleague. See
page 3 for more details.
HOSPITAL NEWS
MEDECATOR CELEBRATES
10 YEARS OF DELIVERY
S
ince its launch at the
start of April in 2004, the
dedicated AAH Medecator
team have been regularly
speaking with users, suppliers
and manufacturers, to enhance
and improve the e-Commerce
system. We have done this to
make Medecator an even more
streamlined and useful tool for
our pharmacy customers. We
are always looking for ways of
making Medecator more userfriendly, how it can be updated
and what might be a useful
development for the future.
In 2006 we established the Medecator user
group for our customers. The aim was to learn
from Medecator users and take on board
customer advice on how the systems should
look for the future.
In 2010, Medecator Clinics were introduced,
as Medecator is an evolving product and
we understand the importance of training
and updating our customers regularly – this
involved the Medecator and hospital service
teams travelling the country providing
customers with the necessary information and
training about the e-procurement tool. These
clinics are free events for both non users and
users of Medecator.
In 2011, the website itself went through
a cosmetic change. Customers were
now able to login through a single place aah.co.uk where users were able to access
information from one place. Medecator
received a facelift with brighter and bolder
colours and icons, a personalised dashboard
with frequently accessed pages and we made
it easier for users to move up a line.
The Medecator & Hospital Service team would
like to thank all our customers for their support
over the last ten years. Especially users who
have made recommendations either via
user groups, clinics, phone calls, emails or
conversations with your account manager
as without you Medecator would not be what
it is today!
Telephone 02476 432546 to request
a copy of the Medecator brochure.
2
MEDECATOR NEW ENHANCEMENTS
Contract mapping in advance
Medecator now has a brand new function which not only
populates all product mapping fields with your contract
details, but will also allow you to pre-enter contract start
and end dates.
This new function will ultimately save you and your teams
from a large data input exercise and prevent the risk of
off contract product orders. At the end of the contract,
the mappings are automatically unlinked-reducing the
risk of products being ordered once off contract.
Contract omits
With the Medecator clinics which have been held the last few months – the Medecator team
have had some great feedback from customers for new ideas for enhancements. One idea
which came from a customer was to have a report for all contract line omits. The customer
explained that this would help when dealing with contract line queries with a manufacturer.
This great idea has now been developed and added to Medecator, allowing customers to
download their contract into a spreadsheet at the touch of a button.
For instructions on how to access and use these new functions you can download
training documents by clicking on the ‘?’ symbols in the top right hand corner of
Medecator’s screen. Or alternatively email your AAH Hospital Account Executive
and they will be able to send you the documents.
HOSPITAL NEWS
APTUK AWARD
WINNERS
CALLING ALL PHARMACY TECHNICIANS!
2015 AWARDS NOW OPEN!
Have you:
• Been
involved in the development of new service?
• Changed
or re-structured the way your colleagues work
in the way to reduce work load or improve patient care?
• Piloted,
run or developed a health campaign in your
pharmacy?
T
his year APTUK’s annual conference was held
at Birmingham’s Aston University- providing a
great venue and transport links. On the Friday
evening the traditional Gala Dinner was held –
starting off with AAH providing drinks and canapes.
After dinner Bianca Davies APTUK, Julie Mathieson APTUK and Andrew
Morris – Head of Sales for AAH Hospital Service revealed the winners of the
2014 Technician of the Year Awards.
Julie Hamer from Southmead Hospital won the Patient Safety Award
for her work on engaging a Pharmacy Ward team to improve medicine
reconciliation. Warren Francis from Antrim Hospital took home the
Innovation Award for developing a new ward ordering system that gave
the Trust back staff time and released cash savings.
Amanda Blessington from Blackpool Hospital received the Leadership
Award for project managing an OPD pilot with LloydsPharmacy which
reduced discharge waiting times and again released cash savings for
the Trust.
The award for Outstanding Contribution was picked up by Jenny Gibbs from
Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group. Jenny, according to her nomination,
‘raises the profile of the Pharmacy Technician profession as she makes clear
that a Pharmacy Technician’s skill set is ideal for many of the challenges
that we face in medicines management. Jenny is a leader in her field and her
peers have seen her good work – they see her dedication to good patient
care, and also her enthusiastic and personable manner.’
Finally the APTUK Branch of the Year Award was won by Gloucester Branch
and picked up by Mike Howes. Bianca Davies from APTUK said of the win
‘The branch award truly recognises the excellence and innovation of the
branch team and its members. Branches play an important role in the delivery
of education and CPD to members as well as networking opportunities.’
AAH Hospital Service are very proud of their long standing association with
APTUK and the Pharmacy Technician Awards and are looking forward to
sponsoring and promoting the awards again in 2015.
THE
WINNERS
If you answered yes to any of these questions or know a
pharmacy technician who has, then we want you to come
forward...
The AAH/APTUK awards for 2015 are to be awarded
to pharmacy technicians who have been involved in a
project, role or piece of work covering one of the following
areas:
• Innovation
• Patient
Safety
• Leadership
How to enter:
Application is simple; all you need to do is go to www.
aah.co.uk and click on the 2015 awards box – complete
the entry form detailing the project in no more than 750
words. You will need to select which criteria (innovation,
patient safety or leadership) the application is most
relevant to.
Winners will receive:
• £500
• An
engraved trophy and certificate
• Free
entry to APTUK conference 2016
• An
opportunity to present your project at this year’s
Conference on 12th/13th June 2015 at Aston University
Those shortlisted will be contacted by mid April 2015 and
will need to be available to attend the Conference on 12th
and 13th June 2015. Prizes will be announced at the Gala
dinner on Friday night. Winners and shortlisted applicants
will need to prepare a 2 minute presentation of their work.
Nominate a team member for the
Outstanding Contribution Award
If you would like to nominate a team member or
colleague for this award, email their details to cpd@aptuk.
org with ‘APTUK/AAH Outstanding Contribution Award
2015’ as your subject.
You will then need to describe how your colleague has
demonstrated the following qualities:
• Raised
Francis Warren
Innovation Award
Amanda Blessington
Leadership Award
the profile of the profession locally, regionally
or nationally
• Is
considered a role model to colleagues
• Constantly
promoting the role of the Pharmacy
Technician
• Sets
an example to others
• Demonstrates
Julie Hamer
Patient Safety Award
Mike Howes – Branch
of the Year Award
Jenny Gibbs – Outstanding
Contribution Award
expertise and professionalism
All entries and nominations will need to be received
by 31st March 2015.
3
HOSPITAL NEWS
!
AAH CHRISTMAS
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
Customer Care (Hospitals): 0844 561 6699
Customer Care (Romford Hospitals): 0844 561 7799
ENGLAND AND WALES
Date
am
pm
Date
am
pm
Monday 22nd Dec
Tuesday 23rd Ded
Wednesday 24th Dec
Thursday 25th Dec
Friday 26th Dec
Saturday 27th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Delivery of orders
placed before 8pm on
24th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Monday 29th Dec
Tuesday 30th Dec
Wednesday 31st Dec
Thursday 1st Jan
Friday
2nd Jan
Saturday 3rd Jan
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
Delivery of orders
placed up to 8pm
31st Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
Normal Delivery
Sunday 28th Dec
Sunday 4th Jan
SCOTLAND
Date
am
pm
Date
am
pm
Monday 22nd Dec
Tuesday 23rd Ded
Wednesday 24th Dec Thursday 25th Dec
Friday 26th Dec
Saturday 27th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Delivery of orders
placed before 8pm
on 24th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Monday 29th Dec
Tuesday 30th Dec
Wednesday 31st Dec
Thursday 1st Jan
Friday
2nd Jan
Saturday 3rd Jan
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Delivery of orders
placed before 8pm
on 31st Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Sunday 28th Dec
Sunday 4th Jan
NORTHERN IRELAND
Date
am
pm
Date
am
pm
4
Monday 22nd Dec
Tuesday 23rd Ded
Wednesday 24th Dec Thursday 25th Dec
Friday 26th Dec
Saturday 27th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Delivery of orders
placed before 8pm
on 24th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Monday 29th Dec
Tuesday 30th Dec
Wednesday 31st Dec
Thursday 1st Jan
Friday
2nd Jan
Delivery of orders
placed before 8pm
on 24th Dec
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
No
Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
Normal Delivery
No
Delivery
Normal Delivery
Saturday 3rd Jan
Sunday 28th Dec
Sunday 4th Jan
HOSPITAL NEWS
PRODUCT
ACCESS FOR
HOSPITAL
PHARMACY
GET TO KNOW...
NEIL JOHNSON
NATIONAL SALES
MANAGER FOR HOSPITALS
IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS!
We know how important AAH securing access to
and strong availability of the products you need is.
We are working hard to ensure that we can offer
the right products to you, when you need it. Listed
below is a short summary of the manufacturers
that AAH has secured access to in the last 6
months. Your local AAH Hospital Account Executive
can support with you with product details.
Abbott Healthcare Ltd
Diabetes
Nutritional
Other range
Alcon Labs
Alliance Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Almirall
Archimedes Pharma UK
Arjun
AstraZeneca
Bausch & Lomb (UK) Ltd
Bayer Diabetes Care
Bayer Pharma
Boehringer Ingelheim
Bristol Myers Squibb
Chiesi
CliniSupplies
Coloplast
ConvaTec
Daiichi-Sankyo
Desitin Pharma – last 6 months
Eisai
Eli Lilly
Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Flynn Pharma Ltd
GlaxoSmithKline
Grunenthal
Ipsen
Janssen-Cilag Limited
Lifescan
Other range
Baraclude
Palexia Only
OneTouch, Ultra &
Finepoint
Mead Johnson Nutrician
Meda
Merck Serono
Elidel
Other range
Other range
Gonal F & Ovitrelle
MSD UK – last 6 months
Napp Pharmaceutical
Nestle Nutritional
Nippro Diagnostics
Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Limited
Nutricia
Roche Diagnostics
Roche Products Limited
Sanofi UK
Servier
Solvay
Systagenix
UCB
Warner Chilcott – last 6 months
Wellspect
My role as National Sales
Manager is predominantly
about supporting our team
of Hospital Account Executives
and establishing strong
partnerships with our customers
to understand their needs and
ensure that the patient is
kept at the heart of our
business strategy.
Essentially it is my job to first and
foremost ensure that the basics are
right, supporting the delivery of a first
class, first time and in full wholesale
service at national, regional and local
levels. In addition I aim to provide
the team with ongoing coaching
and training, supporting access to
up to date industry knowledge and
information which allows them to have
two-way conversations with customers
and connect their requirements
with our services. This allows us to
be more than just a wholesaler.
It is also necessary to establish how
we can support and add value for
our customers, understanding the
challenges and pressures they face be
they financial or related to space, time,
resources, waste or innovation.
“I’m really passionate about
the healthcare industry.”
Ethical lines
Other range
Prostraken
Reckitts Benckiser – last 6 months
What does your
role entail?
Suboxone, Subutex and
Temgesic
Omacor and Colofac MR
Keppra, Viridal, Vimpat
Other range
Our Hospital Account Executives are
our customer champions internally,
maintaining a responsive relationship
and linking our customers with our
AAH branches. By providing our
business with prompt feedback we are
able to explore gaps and issues and
then adapt and evolve our services.
This ensures we help customers to
be effective and provide safer
patient care.
“I wanted to be part of
enhancing the NHS.”
What were you
doing previously
and why Celesio?
I began my working life at
Astra Zeneca as a sales
representative working my
way up through field sales to
management roles, where my
responsibility was to ensure that
the sales force were ready for
global product launches; before
changing roles to become the
Head of Sales for a finance and
asset management company.
I’m really passionate about the
healthcare industry. I like the
pharmaceuticals industry and my
ambition is to make a difference to
people’s lives. I joined Celesio as
I wanted to be part of enhancing
the NHS by working with our hospital
customers to provide patients with
better care.
As I look towards the future with
Celesio, my aim is to progress and
learn from the experience. I have
an appetite to continue driving and
developing our patient centred work,
building upon our achievements to
put AAH at the forefront of the
pharmacy world.
5
HOSPITAL NEWS
AAH AND LEIGHTON
HOSPITAL:
WORKING IN
PARTNERSHIP
O
ver the last few years
AAH has worked in
partnership with a
number of hospitals and
Trusts, supporting the effort
to deliver healthcare solutions
that benefit hospitals and
ultimately patients.
Here, Sarita Harris, a service development
manager with AAH and who is a registered
Pharmacy Technician, explains how AAH
Hospital Services have supported Leighton
General Hospital based in Crewe, part of Mid
Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
With Leighton Hospital, Sarita who has a
wealth of experience in the NHS hospital
environment, worked on two pharmacy based
LEAN projects, with the objectives of making
improvements and increasing efficiency to the
way the pharmacy worked. We initially worked
on a successful project with Denise Smith, the
Chief Technician for Dispensary & Pharmacy
Operations at the Trust in 2012.
The first project analysed current processes
performed by pharmacy assistant technical
officers within the pharmacy stores and on the
ward. The aim was to identify non-value steps
and make time savings. The areas of review
included:
• reducing double handling of ward top-ups
• getting the most out of ward automated
drug cabinets
A follow up project spent three days in the
dispensary, evaluating the current dispensary
layout, the workload and workflow within it.
And again, the objectives were to identify any
non-value process steps for inpatient,
outpatient and discharge dispensing and
make time releasing recommendations
to increase capacity and ease dispensary
pressures. Areas of review covered the
dispensary layout, workflow and the
outpatient ‘patient experience’.
If you would like to know more
about the added-value services AAH
can offer then please speak to your
AAH Hospital Account Executive.
6
LLOYDSPHARMACY, PART OF THE CELESIO FAMILY,
IN LAUNCH OF CENTRE OF PHARMACY
A FIRST FOR PHARMACY
IN THE UK
T
he Centre for Pharmacy Innovation
is a tripartite research collaboration
between the Royal Liverpool &
Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust,
Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and
LloydsPharmacy, and is the first of its kind in
the UK.
The Centre will be housed in the LJMU
School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular
Sciences, and the collaboration’s first stream
of research will study the transfer of patient
care between hospitals and the community
at the admission and discharge stages. Its
conclusions will be used to enhance the
role of pharmacy and improve the quality
of medicines management for patients,
decrease medicines waste, and maximise
clinical input.
With an enhanced role for the community
pharmacist in the transition process, there
are opportunities to change the current
system to help improve the quality of
care provided and save the NHS money.
Specifically, the research aims to determine
an innovative hospital discharge prescribing
process that provides safe, quality and
effective transfer for patients from secondary
to community care. The new model will be
piloted and evaluated with the objective of
directing future processes in hospitals and
pharmacies across the UK.
Focusing on clinical pharmacy practice
research, the project will also support the
development of a post-graduate education
and training programme to better equip
community pharmacy teams with the skills
to advise patients about their health – from
minor ailments to diabetes and asthma
control – providing a resource for the wider
NHS community and pharmacy profession.
The collaboration arose from the successful
partnership established in 2009 between
the Trust and LloydsPharmacy to provide
hospital outpatient dispensing. The benefit
of joint working to improve patient care
became the driving force in working with
the university to research additional ways of
working together.
Andrew Willetts, Healthcare Solutions
Director leading the project on behalf of
Andrew Willetts, Healthcare
Solutions Director
“We see this first research
project as a starting point
in a long future of creating
academic partnerships
that will drive excellence
in healthcare.”
LloydsPharmacy, said: “With pressure on
the NHS continuing to rise and patient
safety increasingly important, there is an
opportunity for pharmacy to alleviate this
pressure by providing hospitals with an
approved clinical pathway. It is exciting
that through this research, we have the
opportunity to improve the continuity of
care after hospital discharge and change
the face and quality of healthcare forever.”
“This project is just one way in which
we are driving innovation within the
healthcare sector. We are incredibly proud
that our partnerships between the NHS
and LloydsPharmacy branches across the
UK allow us to understand community
healthcare in a way that helps to shape
positive improvements. We see this first
research project as a starting point in a long
future of creating academic partnerships
that will drive excellence in healthcare.”
If you would like to know more
information on The Centre of
Pharmacy Innovation please email
– [email protected]
A newsletter for Hospital Pharmacy
OPINION PAGE
With each edition of Hospital News we will bring you a range of thought provoking stories on our Opinion
Page. In this edition Cormac Tobin, the MD of Celesio UK, gives his views on the Five Year Forward view from
Simon Stevens. Cormac covers how healthcare needs to evolve, and in particular how community pharmacy
can play a role in providing solutions that benefit the NHS.
THE 5YFV SETS THE FOUNDATIONS,
NOW WE NEED TO BUILD THE FUTURE
OF THE NHS TOGETHER
Cormac Tobin, Managing Director of Celesio
UK speaking at the HSJ Awards in November
S
imon Stevens, the chief executive of
the NHS in England, recently delivered
his much anticipated Five Year Forward
View of how the organisation needs to change
in order to meet future health challenges.
People are living for longer, often with multiple
long term health conditions, and the NHS
needs to grow and evolve in order to meet the
increasing demand society is placing on it.
reasons every day and by our very nature
we are easy to access and have longer
opening hours than GP surgeries – including
weekends. I am therefore encouraged when
Simon Stevens commits to supporting a
greater understanding that pharmacies and
online resources can help the public deal with
common ailments and that he recognises the
enhanced role pharmacy can play in the future
of the NHS. Indeed, the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society this week issued results of a study
that found the NHS could save £1 billion if
successful and efficient patient care.
The announcement from NHS England
reiterates that to make the NHS sustainable
new models of delivering care are needed. It is
going to take a joint effort from government,
business and society to secure a future for a
free at the point of use service.
The 5YFV is an excellent road map for the
future but in order to make effective change
and deliver real patient benefit we need to
go further. There needs to be an increase in
Over recent years the issues the NHS is facing
have been widely reported, along with a
catalogue of initiatives to alleviate these
pressures, so people could be forgiven for
being a bit sceptical of yet more rhetoric.
However, as I read through the report I was
“1.2 million people visit around
11,500 community pharmacies
in England for health-related
reasons”.
encouraged and I welcome the approach that
Simon and his team propose.
The funding challenge and predictions for the
future are stark reminders of the imperative for
change. At its core, the Forward View promotes
more emphasis on prevention, empowering
patients and engaging with communities,
helping people ‘get the right care, at the right
time, in the right place’.
These themes resonate with our experience
and we have been working hard to offer
patients more healthcare information, advice
and support for many years. After all, 1.2
million people visit around 11,500 community
pharmacies in England for health-related
pharmacies in England offered a minor ailment
service as they do in Scotland.
Keen to demonstrate our capabilities and how
we can add value, we launched a number of
First Care Clinics at the end of last year. The
clinics provide patients with an alternative
treatment pathway to walk-in centres or
GP surgeries for the treatment of common
ailments and minor injuries.
We are now looking at other options on where
LloydsPharmacy First Care Clinics can be
best situated to make the biggest impact on
the healthcare environment, truly alleviating
GP surgeries and A&E units by providing
collaboration between the NHS and other
healthcare providers, especially community
pharmacy, which is ideally placed to provide
patients with effective and convenient
treatments in their own communities without
compromising on care.
We need to galvanise the aspirations of the
forward view, show leadership and help to
shape a fit for purpose NHS which can be
sustained for many years to come.
If you have any thoughts comments on the
Five Year View or have any questions please
email [email protected]
7